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Physicians’ knowledge of the epidemiology, diagnosis, and management of otitis media

Design of a survey instrument

Gordon Flowerdew, MSc DSc
Consultant bio-statistician and an Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS

Mary Delaney, MS PhD
Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Mount Saint Vincent University in Bedford, NS

Correspondence: Dr Ambrose Lee, ENT Department, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS, 2nd Floor, Lambeth Wing, St Thomas’ Hospital, Westminster Bridge Rd, London, UK SE1 7EH; telephone 44 (0)20 7188 0716; e-mailalee2{at}dal.ca

OBJECTIVE To develop a survey instrument with good internal consistency and test-retest reliability to explore the level of knowledge among Nova Scotia family physicians concerning the risk factors, signs and symptoms, and treatment of otitis media and the use of pneumatic otoscopy.

DESIGN Prospective cohort design.

SETTING Fee-for-service family practices in Nova Scotia.

PARTICIPANTS A convenience sample of 25 family physicians.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Test-retest reliability and internal consistency of the survey.

RESULTS The constructs including "signs and symptoms of otitis media with effusion" and "comprehensive knowledge scores" showed excellent internal consistency with Kuder-Richardson 20 scores greater than 0.7 whereas the construct "signs and symptoms of acute otitis media" has a Kuder-Richardson 20 score of 0.54 after deletion of several items. The Cohen and Spearman tests showed the survey has very good test-retest reliability.

CONCLUSION The questionnaire that we developed proved to have very good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. We hope to use this questionnaire to explore the practice patterns of family physicians in managing otitis media disease.